The asylum agreement with which the cabinet wants to slow down the influx of asylum seekers is in violation of European law. This is what the Meijers Committee, a group of independent lawyers that advises on European migration law, wrote in a statement commentary. With the postponement, the asylum procedure would take longer than allowed.
Fifteen months will become the norm for family reunification, according to the plan that State Secretary Eric van den Burg (Asylum and Migration, VVD) announced at the end of August. That is too long, the Meijers Committee writes: according to the EU Family Reunification Directive, the procedure may only last longer than nine months in special cases. According to the Commission, the fact that families are allowed to come over sooner if the refugee has a house in the Netherlands is also contrary to the directive.
Underage asylum seekers are hit even harder by the asylum deal, the commentary says: if they have to wait 15 months for their own procedure, and then another 15 months until their parents come over, they are in fact alone for two and a half years. Various European agreements state that this must be done faster.
Also read: Party members CU and D66 critical of the cabinet’s asylum agreements